1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to a fleet management system; and in particular, the present invention relates to a vehicle operation and position recording system utilizing a global positioning system.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
For an owner of a large fleet of vehicles, monitoring the usage and the operation of the vehicles is essential for effective management. For example, for insurance or vehicle maintenance purpose, the fleet manager or the vehicle owner may wish to know at what speeds the driver has been driving a particular vehicle. The fleet manager may also wish to know the routes or streets the vehicle have been driven through to determine whether the most efficient routes have been used. In addition, the company may wish to obtain operational data on the vehicle, such as the gasoline usage, total miles driven, the driving and stopping times of the vehicles. Such information allows the company to better manage fuel and vehicle maintenance costs.
The vehicle operation and position recording system according to the present invention records positional and operational data of the vehicle. The recording device includes a GPS receiver, a control unit and a storage device. In one embodiment, the storage device stores information on a portable storage medium to allow the recorded information to be retrieved from the in-vehicle recording device readily. Alternatively, a communication port can be provided in the recording system to allow an external computer to retrieve the positional data and operational from the storage unit.
According to another aspect of the present invention, positional data is stored in the storage unit in a compressed format to take advantage of the slow changes in positional data even in a moving vehicle. In one embodiment, only values of fields of the current record that are changed from the immediately prior record are stored in the storage unit.
The present invention allows recording the positions of a moving vehicle onto a storage medium while the vehicle is operating. The stored positional data are later retrieved for subsequent analysis.